


Nico Di Angelo- Theories, Rants, Concerns & More

by FuckingSadBoi



Series: My Thoughts On [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Conspiracy Theories, Demigods, Gen, Italian Nico di Angelo, Lotus Hotel and Casino, Nico di Angelo Speaks Italian, Nico di Angelo-centric, Nico-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:08:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23252224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuckingSadBoi/pseuds/FuckingSadBoi
Summary: Just me talking about every concern I have revolving around Nico and maybe other characters.
Series: My Thoughts On [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1671853
Comments: 11
Kudos: 77





	1. Age and Trauma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Idk, What the title says

We're gonna talk about Nico's age in this one.

On the subject of Nico's birthday, the wiki states that Nico's birthday is January 28th, 1924. Which means Nico would have been in America and put in the Casino in 1934 when he was 10.

He spent 70 Years stuck in the Lotus Casino, Which to him and his sister, Bianca, was only a couple months. The question is, Does the time in the hotel translate to physical and mental age?

Chronologically, Nico would 96 in 2020. Mentally and Physically he would be 23 in 2020.

if you wanted to do the math, it essentially be this; 

In 2005, Percy would have been 12. Which is when Lightning Thief would take place. Since Nico is still In the Casino he wouldn't age.

In 2006, Sea Of Monsters takes place. Again Nico doesn't age. At least not until 2007, when he's in Westover and no longer affected by Lotus Casino and the time magic. He's still ten if we don't try to add the months he felt go by in the casino. By the time The Last Olympian takes place in 2009, Nico would be 12, since his birthday takes place at the beginning of the year. Not even a teenager and fighting in a war. 

In HoO, Percy is 17 which means that Nico is only 13 -years-old when he fights in his second war. HoO would take place in 2010, if we're going strictly by the timeline set and using Percy's birthday as the starting date.

But if we add the months Nico felt go by, which I'd guess would be 7 months since 70 years went by and we're not using years. We can't assume what month Nico went into the Casino though. Well, we can assume. But knowing in actuality when he went into the casino is another thing. It had to have been after January, Which means nothing would change besides Nico's mind and body being a few months ahead of the year. But depending on how late in the year, Nico would be a year older. Which still sin't much better. He'd still only be 14 in HoO. 

But for the sake of not trying to break my remaining brain cells, we're not including the rest of those months in this. So he's 13.

Now that we've generally broken down That Nico isn't even allowed a drivers licence. I'm going to talk about his trauma and how some people (Not all) have overlooked him and his achievements. 

Firstly, I think most people tend to forget or ignore the fact that Annabeth and Percy were not the first to survive Tartarus. Nico originally went in himself, getting lured down there and eventually captured a few days later by the twins. He also brought up meeting Akhlys on page 299. Directly stating," Nico found himself back in Tartarus, standing before Akhlys, the goddess of misery. Blood streaked her cheeks. Tears streamed from her eyes, dripped on the shield of Hercules in her lap. "Child of Hades, what more could I do to you? You are perfect! So much sorrow and pain!"" Which by itself is already a big red flag about his mental state and his trauma. But it's not the only red flag that Blood of Olympus alone raises. 

Examples;

  1. Page 131:'"Dreams and death were old friends of his."- While possibly talking about his powers are more realistically talking about how he's always surrounded by death of people he knows and loves and the demigod dreams which practically torture every demigod who has ever gotten one.
  2. age 142 "He could've sworn he'd only slept a few minutes, but as his drowsiness faded, he realized he felt more clear-headed and rested than he had in weeks, maybe since before he went looking for the doors of death."- Nico's lacking vital elements of self-care for _weeks!_ Realistically speaking, or as close as you can get in a world of Greek gods, he would be dead without other people making sure he took care of himself. 
  3. Pages 144-147:"But being _forced_ to talk about Percy, being bullied and harassed and strong-armed simply for Cupid's amusement..." , "Nico almost laughed, but his chest felt too hollow.", and, "Nico hesitated. He wasn't used to getting a direct answer, without games or riddles or quests."- This shows how every bit of Nico's life outside of fake memories and the Lotus Casino is all just a big game. He acknowledges that he's unused to it, because every part of his life is to amuse the gods, or the fates, or the monsters. It's gotten to the point where being told information directly is surprising and he _hesitates_ to trust it. The chest thing is about his mental health and how his emotions are all dull and probably don't help Nico with his trauma that is ever-growing.
  4. Pages 148-149. :"Nico had never allowed himself the luxury of friends, but the crew of the _Argo II_ was as close as he'd ever come . The idea of them dying made him feel empty--like he was back in the giants' bronze jar, alone in the dark, subsisting only on sour pomegranate seeds." This moment of friendship is sweet. But the rest of the sentence, hell, all of the sentence is concerning. He's never actually had friends. He's 14. He shouldn't have to know what all of this feels like, he shouldn't know what it's like to feel _utterly and completely alone_.



And perhaps my biggest piece of evidence page 52. "Reyna's own knees buckled. She'd expected some back-lash; it happened every time she shares her strength. But she hadn't anticipated so much raw anguish from Nico Di Angelo. She sat down heavily, just managing to stay conscious. _Gods of Rome._ If this was only a portion of Nico's pain... how could he bear it?" 

that alone could make a case for how much Nico has been through. Reyna fucking Ramirez-Arellano couldn't fucking handle Nico's pain, how the hell do you think Nico is taking it! He's had years of pain and misery and he continues to fucking help people. He can't talk to people for most of that because everyone he loved and cared for just fucking died and left him alone in a world he doesn't understand. Then he starts growing to care for these people, and he's thrown into a second war and has to watch people around him die. All. Over. Again.

Yes, they've all gone through shit. But people constantly ignore and degrade Nico despite him being so fucking strong! People need to acknowledge everything they've done and been through and try to understand the complexity of the characters. Their not just devices to be used anymore and they never have been to be very fucking honest. They've grown into more for so many people. And they've been through some shit that _actual, real people have been through_. the loss of a loved one, a war, battles, internal-homophobia, anxiety, PTSD, and etc. They have gone through things like the characters. AMd degrading characters can make it seem like you're degrading them. 

It may not be intentional, but it can be that way.   
  
Sorry, I got off track.

So that's that for this fic. In the next one, I'm probably going to go more into Hades and Nico's dynamic/relationship and maybe bring up more examples of Nico's pain from HoH and TBoO.


	2. Hades and More Trauma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My thoughts, Theories, concerns, and more about Hades And Nico's Other Trauma.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just saying, i don't claim to be very good at this whole conspiracies (and more) stuff. But I try my best!

The subject of this chapter is Hades and Nico's relationship and more of Nico's trauma!

Nico and Hades' relationship is complicated to say the very least. It's this "I wish you had died in Bianca's place." and how he preferred Bianca over Nico. At least in PJO.

In HoO it's this sort of weird father-son dynamic where Hades _tries_ to be a good dad.He actually directly says, "My children are so rarely happy. I... I would like to see you be an exception.(150)"

This moment was a bit shell shocking, Hades, the lord of the underworld, who was previously shown to hold misplaced resentment toward Nico (Which Nico held the same amount back. Only his wasn't misplaced.) was now _openly telling **Nico** he, Hades, wanted Nico to be **happy.**_ This moment was the closest fucking bonding moment they get, that we see at least, and I feel like it was both built up to and out of the blue. 

There were a few moment that we see in the books that make this brief moment of care not totally impossible, Like how in TLO (The Last Olympian) Hades chose to fight. We all know he didn't have to. He's a **god**. But he did for Nico. And admittedly a few other reasons, but mainly Nico. Then we get a little flash back seen on page 299 where Hades leads Nico to Camp Jupiter, which I have a personal head-cannon was because Hades somehow knew the war was gonna happen. 

But in actuality, no one really knew the war was gonna happen. Hera just happened to kick start it and then it derailed from there. Hades lead Nico to Camp Jupiter because of how much he trusted Nico. A small part of that reason may have been due to Hazel, but the bond between Hades and Nico had been growing ever since that moment in TLO.

Nico became the first Greek demigod since the First Demigod Civil War to learn about the existence of Roman demigods and to visit Camp Jupiter. And if that doesn't fucking say how close Hades and Nico became, i don't know what will.

Oh wait. I have more.

1\. Nico gets a birthday gift from Hades. Jules-Albert, who has an fucking french accent and can DRIVE!! Look me in the eyes and tell me you don't fucking want one. (Another head-cannon of Nico just using Jules-Albert to go to McDonald's Drive Thru)

2\. Preparing a room for Nico in the palace. (It may be in case he dies, but it's the thought that counts.)

3\. Rick Riordan's whole interview thing with Hades and Nico. That bitch is literally just Nico and Hades being the classic family. Like holy fuck, Hades is such a fucking dad and Nico is playing his "Angsty, emo, teen" thing so well. And the whole fucking, "You've taken a very disrespectful tone with me ever since you 83, young man" Like holy fuck It's comedy gold and I need more.

4.Fucking says that in some important ways they are the same and I'm just fucking done.

I'll die happy with good dad Hades. But for the sake of my angst fics, fuck Hades. (jk babe, ILY)

Hades is proud and happy and wants Nico to be HAPPY in a way none of his other kids got the chance to be! Nico is the favorite child and I fucking love their relationship.

* * *

Now we're on Nico's Trauma. Sadly, I can't get my HoH book yet, though I do have BoO. So more from there and I'll probably add in the HoH exerts tomorrow so this bit is basically useless because it'll still be in the book.

Anyways,here we go. 

1\. Page 14, "Over the past few days, every time Jason sacrificed a portion of a meal to Jupiter, he prayed to his dad to help Nico. That kid had gone through so much, and yet he had volunteered for the most difficult job: transporting the Athena Parthenos statue to Camp Half-Blood."

2\. Page 52, "He still looked terrible. His skin had a bluish tint. His cheeks were sunken. Hanging at his side, the scepter of Diocletian glowed angry purple, like a radioactive bruise."

3\. Page 54, "She'd felt more pain from Nico in their brief connection than she had from her entire legion during the battle against the giant Polybotes."

I'm going to only talk about these three for now (just in the first five chapters) because I want to go more in depth then I had last chapter. I actually felt a bit bad since I felt it was a bit half-assed. 

Number one; Firstly, Jason is such a big brother like oh my fucking gods. But beside that, this kinda jumped at me because Jason is so fucking concerned about him, when Jason is literally about to get his ass kicked. Like, he's as concerned as I am. Damn, I'm getting off track. It's for a good reason too. Nico has been doing as much as he could to help people since he turned 11. He's been giving, giving, and giving away parts of himself if it means other people won't have to. Nico can't see how unhealthy it is because it's been happening for years. And absolutely. No. One. Has said. Shit.

They've watched this little ass kid kill monsters, and push himself more than he should have to, just to save people who have been dicks to him since forever. Bianca told him not to have a grudge against Percy, that they are a fatal flaw of all Hades kids. But they don't fucking realize that Nico never had a grudge. It's so fucking obvious.

We all know that Nico slowly started gaining his memories, and still had faint feelings about things he's already done. So is it so fucking hard to realize that when Nico started crushing on Percy, he felt disgusted. Because, mind you he was born in a time where you could and would be killed for being gay. Then Percy comes back with the news that Bianca died, after he promised to keep her safe. As a kid, someone breaking a promise is the fucking worst. But Bianca, his only remaining family ,after his father who he can't remember and left him alone for years, died?

That's a sure fire way for Nico to hate Percy. But following the technical definition, "be resentfully unwilling to give, grant, or allow (something).", Nico never does anything of the sort. In fact, I don't think Nico can hold a grudge on anyone not a god, ghost, evil, or homophobic. Instead all his anger is just anger. It's frustration, being scared, being alone in a world out to kill you. Nico isn't trying to hold a grudge, he's trying to go through what happening in his own way. Trying to hold himself together because no one else is there to do it for him.

Not after Bianca dies, not after he fell in Tartarus, not after the cupid incident. Yes, Hazel was there. But they had barely known each other longer than a year, they weren't as close as Nico and Bianca, or Nico and his mother. He was just trying to help despite everything. Even at 11, in BoL (Labyrinth battle) he pushes himself until he collapses so that he could save countless lives. He gives away his time and energy, his happiness, just so that other people can live. So that people he doesn't know, people who actively alienate him, can live. Even if it means his death. 

Number Two; More on how he's giving himself away, doing his best for others. So that he could stop a war, so that he could save even more people. He almost dies countless times. And he keep trying. He bares the pain of it all head on and does his best. He doesn't complain, he doesn't ask for help. 

Nico has been independently taking care of himself since Bianca died, since people figured out who his dad was and started irrationally fearing and hating him. He never let it show how it hurt, never let it stop him from saving people. He's a literal bean, and angel, and needs therapy.

(Unrelated but I'm crying because I'm listening to Cavetown. If you don't know who they are, they are an amazing singer and songwriter named Robbie. He's trans and ace. His songs are so ... just perfect. Since I'm giving shout-outs, listen to Alec Benjamin too. He's an amazing songwriter and singer, he makes me cry (in a good way) too.)

Number Three; Here it shows how much Nico keeps bottled inside and hidden from people. 

Like, how deep his emotions how been hidden and stored that he fucking can deal with all the bull shit like it's nothing. He's still a kid. Barely fourteen and he doesn't know that feeling that much like shit is normal because he's been isolated from people for years. He barely got time to mourn his sister, or his mother, or not fight monsters or ghosts. His life was a cluster-fuck of action and pain and not being able to do anything but fight to live.

Nico needs to be given time and a normal childhood. He needs people to help him, he needs to talk through everything. But no one will let that happen because no one realizes it's happening, not even Nico himself does. 

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk, next chapter is probably something about Nico. Maybe I'll theorize when he was actually born because Uncle Rick can't make an even fucking timeline. Sorry, but I'll probably try to keep a lighter tone than what this bitch was. 


	3. the guy who didn't like musicals is the shit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Me being all over the place and going way too in-depth about a skeleton cat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fuck I haven't updated In a WHILE

Sup, Fuckmunches!

Aight so today, or whenever I post this although that would be your today. Anyways, I wanna talk about... You probably guessed it, Nico Di Angelo.

I read something on Tumblr about how Nico is strong and doesn't need anybody to coddle him and about how he's not weak. And that people who write shit like that is stupid or something.

I absolutely agree and disagree.

Nico IS strong. He's powerful and smart. Able to do things and figure things out and be such a deep character in ways that make him my personal favorite. He doesn't need coddling because he has been fine without it. He's able to live without it. But that doesn't necessarily mean that coddling is weak and that being able to rely on people is a bad thing.

I think being able to let people be a kid every once in a while is a good thing. And I think that Nico shouldn't HAVE to be strong all the time. Letting people help you isn't weak or taking away from his strength. 

Yeah, sometimes people go further than that and make him seem defenseless and unable to be safe unless someone saves him. Which I don't like either. 

Nico has been able to save himself and has done so for years. Yes, help is good but making it seem like he's useless is horrible. He should be able to help himself and allow others to help him help himself (If that makes sense?)

* * *

Alright, new topic. 

How about I combine Voltron and PJO/HoO

More specifically Nico and Keith.

I do have to put that AU mention, wait did I mention it? nevermind, to use, and what better way than making Nico and Keith related.

Yes, that's right. I'm making Nico one of Kieth's ancestors in this. Because they are very similar and I want a crossover of that shit. But like what if Keith had some like, vague Hades power that saves everyone's ass but team Voltron is super fucking weirded out or at least the humans. Space Uncle has probably met demigods before... it's Coran.

and he's already getting shit for the Galra thing and now he has to deal with demigod bullshit.

And don't say there wouldn't have been fights between Demigods and literally any alien (or Literally anyone) because not only are some of them aggressive as shit but also trouble follows demigods EVERYWHERE so now we have sad Keith and mad Allura (Not Space Uncle because he's perfect uwu) and the team is still fucking confused. 

Or we could have that one plot where Keith and Nico switch places because 1. They look similar 2. Both are so emotionally stunted and have lived knowing only fighting so that will immediately start fucking drama.

Honestly, I fucking love the idea of this shit but I don't want to write it because I still have other shit to do. Oh yeah, also there has to be gay. Somewhere. Everywhere.

* * *

Now I kinda wanna geek over how fucking powerful Nico is. Like he fucking killed a guy by making them into a literal fucking nameless, faceless, unrecognizable, ghost because he was being a dick. And he sprouts a fucking iconic (to me at least, but fuck anyone who says it isn't) line about their godly parents and punishment being due which I'm not adding because I don't want to look up the exact line.

Like Nico can do fucking loads when he's not being starved, injured, on the run, constant shadow travel. He's so fucking strong and I just want to know more about his powers.

Why can't we just get a book all about Nico? Just Nico. maybe Will too because Nico and Will are cute together. Nico needs love and his own book, neither of which uncle rick is really willing to offer right now. 

Like, we know what Hades can do Nico can do (Hazel's powers don't count right now because she's pluto's daughter, not Hades') because Nico would have gotten his powers from Hades. But what can Hades do? Hades isn't explored as much as, say, apollo. So we don't know as much. We know they can control the earth to a degree, the dead, shadows, and dreams, go into a coma with the pomegranate seeds ( i know it's not a literal coma), ghostify someone (what I'm calling it), some form of temperature control, sucking the life out of things surrounding him. he has so many different and diverse powers.

What does Percy have? Water? Like, I get that it can do lots and stuff. But he's had years using just water and once (1) poison.

Nico over here mastering all 4 elements. Barely 13 (or fourteen depending on which wack Rick Timeline you follow), and already able to compete head-to-head with Percy, who's 17/18.

* * *

Whatever happened to Small Bob? We see a lot of artists and writers including the little skeleton cat in moments with Nico, but I can’t exactly remember what truly happened to that cat.

I know he was in Tartarus with his namesake, Bob the titan, but did he ever leave?

Today, I’m planning on going through the House of Hades and Blood of Olympus books for an honest to god answer to  _ my  _ internal dilemma.

But, for now, I’m going to skim through what my memory can recall. Both about the books, when he’s mentioned, and the fanfics/artwork that include Small Bob.

I remember that Small Bob is the result of Atlas using a Saber-tooth tiger tooth, which failed because he was trying for a dino if I recall. Atlas destroyed them, and that was that until Bob found him in Tartarus. As far as I recall, we don’t see Small Bob after Percy and Annabeth leave Tartarus.

I’m an avid fanfic reader, I’ve been doing so for around 2-3 years now. This account itself is more than 2 years old. I was also originally in very few fandoms. To name them, Harry Potter, Voltron, and Percy Jackson. 

I was originally on Wattpad and Fanfic.net, but a lot of fanfic haunts me there. Though I still have an old account.  So I’m going to talk about what, according to the ones I’ve read, the majority of them include. They usually try including them when it’s Nico or Percy centric, bringing Small Bob back for some angst/fluff. 

Small Bob is usually there to be a cute pet, when he’s included. And they keep his skills/personality basic. I know he’s a cat/tiger but animals have personalities too. 

He's never mentioned in combat, although I think he fought monsters with Bob. He never does anything outside of helping to make Percy/Nico happy.

Using a slightly more specific user, Takara Phoenix, they include a bunch of characters throughout their works. They don’t include Small Bob in all of their fics, though when they do Small Bob is a tiny, domesticated cat. Now, I’m not hating. I love Takara and have been obsessed with their work for a long time. They were one of the people who inspired me to just go out and write my stories. I had bad anxiety about posting stuff, even through an anon account.

This isn’t about me though. We’re talking about Small Bob.

Now, I’m going to do a brief skim of google. 1st source I’m going to go through is the Riordan Wiki. a few things catching my attention is that we have no clue how Small Bob truly got to Tartarus, Small Bob was the last survivor of the Saber-Tooth’s, and Small Bob can switch through forms.

A small snippet directly from the Wiki says, “His fate afterward is currently unknown but like Bob and Damasen, he was presumably destroyed by Tartarus for his actions.” 

Now, I’m going to talk about the first three before I get to that last snippet.  We get an assumption from Percy that when Atlas told his servants to take the Saber-Tooth’s away, they were sent to Tartarus. Though it’s just an  _ assumption.  _ What Percy thinks isn’t solid evidence.

Though we have nothing else to use. So for now, we can only assume that Small Bob was sent to Tartarus by Atlas.

Next, Small Bob is the last surviving tiger from the Smithsonian Museum. I can’t recall the exact number that were created. Maybe 4? Anyways, if we’re assuming what we did earlier, we know they were all sent to Tartarus. So, what happened to them. Did they actually die in Tartarus? Were they just separated? The wiki doesn’t say. 

Since it’s unlikely that Small Bob was the only one to survive. I am going to assume that they were just separated and no one truly knows how many survived.

Thirdly, Small Bob has 2 forms. A small, kitten form as I’ll call it, and a second large, tiger form. His kitten form, I’m assuming, is likely what everyone writes when they write Small Bob. A kitten who isn’t that strong, who is just a baby. His second form is actually something I barely recalled, if at all. It’s his attack form. He’s large, strong, not as cuddly as his tiny self is.

It’s very interesting to realize that people don’t remember or don’t prefer this large, tiger form. Because then you realize, because so many people don’t mention it or talk about it, I almost forgot it existed.

And for the final segment of the Wiki, we’re going to talk about Small Bob’s unknown ending. The wiki says that it’s unknown what happened to the saber-tooth. He could have died. Like the person who wrote this Wiki Page said. Tartarus could have destroyed them for ruining Gaea’s attempt at World Domination.

In reality, people who include Small Bob in work taking place after Tartarus are taking creative liberties. Which I fully support. I hate the idea that Small Bob died, even if it’s the most logical idea. I would love for someone to write a fic about Small Bob. Or to even include Small Bob.

Small Bob has his own tag, which only has 20 works on it. I can’t wait to go through it later, but for now, I’m writing this… whatever it’s classified as.

I did want to get through more, but there isn’t much to begin with.

There’s a Tumblr tag and Pinterest tags. But going through both briefly, we can see that they’re not very popular. Occasionally a few get popular and widespread, but those are few and definitely not as popular as some other tags get regularly.

There was this one Tumblr post about Bob and Small Bob, where they reform and get to the surface, meeting with an old Percabeth couple. I can’t find it currently, but if I do I’ll link it. It brings up his 2nd form and is quite sweet.

[ Link ](https://actuallymollyweasley.tumblr.com/post/126756409840/cat-a-hoo-fanfic)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I found it, added a little link button thing. I don't know if I will, but I may just post these little rants on my Tumblr. Who knows, it may be fun.

**Author's Note:**

> Questions can be asked in comments, based on length they'll be replies or in the next chapter.
> 
> Fic requests can also be asked. I may bot do all of them, or do them quickly(or well) but I'll try.


End file.
